EDUCOM '96: Highlighting Penn People and Resources

As 2500 to 3000 creators and users of today's computer systems stream into Philadelphia this week for EDUCOM '96 at the Philadelphia Convention
Center, some of the speakers are from Penn--and some of the campus will be part of the conference. Among the speakers:

President Rodin in a special address at the opening general session.

James J. O'Donnell, Professor of Classical Studies and Interim Vice Provost of Information Systems and Computing, and Alan Filreis, Professor of English and Director of the University Writing Program, heading a panel session, "Teaching with Technology... and With Students," which will be addressing issues including distance learning students and the erasure of boundaries between academic and residential life due to technology.

Gregory Farrington, Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and Helen Anderson, Associate Director of Computing and Educational Technical Services, SEAS, will be speaking about technology experiments on the University campus and strategic choices universities will face in the virtual world.

Tours of campus will begin at 1 p.m. on Wednesday 10/9 and Thursday 10/10. Included on the tours are: SAS's Music Computer Lab; the computer-friendly classroom renovations at Engineering and Chemistry; Nursing's Distance Education Program; services of the Instructional Technology Center and Videoconference Center; the Residential Wiring Project; Van Pelt-Dietrich Library and Biddle Law Library computer resources; and the source of
it all, the ENIAC Museum tour.

Honors in Computing

The U.S. Post Office this week is issuing a new 32-cent stamp honoring computing--both the date and the locations of its first two days' cancellations chosen because of ENIAC's 50th birthday.

The first-day cancellations will be made at a military site in Kansas, recognizing the Department of Army's support of the first project at Penn, and a second-day cancellation ceremony takes place in Philadelphia both as the birthplace of modern computing and the site of EDUCOM '96. Governor Thomas J. Ridge and Penn President Judith Rodin will take part in the ceremony.

Via the stamp designed by Nancy Skolas and TomWedell of Charlestown, MA, "The Postal Service not only salutes the hard work and diligence of all who contributed to the evolution of the computer, it values their contribution, said the Service's Acting Vice President for Area Operations, John A. Rapp. Because of the computer, we can process mail at a staggering 40,000 pieces per hour--on one machine!" He will describe at the ceremony some new electronic communications being tested by the Postal Service, including an electronic postmark and public kiosks.

Penn Printout has been awarded first place in two categories in the 1996 newsletter competition of the ACM/SIGUCCS (Association of Computing Machinery/ Special Interest Group on University and College Comptuing Services). The awards for best print newsletter of 20 pages or more, and for best in electronic news, were given in Chicago last week. They singled out Judy Smith and Edda Katz as editors, and Randall Couch, Teresa Leo and Celeste Stewart as designers.